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Star Trek criticized — the pinnacle

November 7, 2007 — Ned Raggett

Every so often a thread is revived over on ILX about Star Trek. All well and good. Happily, a big reason why it’s revived was the reposting some years back of an AIM chat that two of its longest-standing members, Ethan and Ronan, had of an evening, mostly on The Next Generation. The thread having been revived today, it really is my duty to help spread the word about this legendary chat of chats. Before I link there, I will note:

1) Naughty words abound.

2) Ethan’s American and Ronan’s Irish, to give a little context to some of the more specific comments either of them make.

3) I absolutely agree with one of the posts that followed it soon after, which read:

that is seriously the greatest ilx post ever and i feel like a nerd for understanding EVERY F—ING WORD OF IT.

Janeway, with her cool Katherine Hepburn style, was the best of a mediocre bunch. Except for Seven who rools!

We just rewatched the entire DS9 series 1-7, and had to rethink our original response to it. Loved One even used to call it “TrekEnders”, after the BBC soap, Eastenders.

DS9 pushed the envelope of what was doable in Roddenberry’s cosy future. It looked at hard issues of colonialism, the pitfalls of theocracy, and made a female lead a former terrorist. It satirised our modern capitalism in the form of the Ferengi.

And Ron Moore was working through many ideas he used in Battlestar Galactica, EG how you deal with an enemy who appears to be us, in the Changelings and Cylons.

For a series that’s generally thought of as dark and gloomy, there’s more classic screwball comedy than anywhere else in the Trek franchise or in any SF TV. Plus an amazing set of actors Armin Shimerman, Wallace Shawn, Rene Auberjonois, Colm Meaney, Andy Robinson, the Oscar-winning Louise Fletcher.

Far Beyond The Stars was as committed and audacious a piece of anti-racist time travel TV as you will ever find.